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Catavina Tourist Attractions

Things to Do, See and Enjoy

The main Catavina tourist attractions are a wonderland of huge boulders, unique flora and fauna, rupestrian rock paintings and ancient missions that you can enjoy within walking distance from the village.

Giant Cardon
The giant cardon growing here is considered as the world’s largest cactus. Some specimens are well over sixty feet tall.

Other cacti in the area are nopal, pitahaya, cholla, yucca and agave. This area is fertile ground for over 80 varieties of cacti that are found nowhere else.

Giant Cardon

Elephant Tree
The elephant tree is a non-cactus remarkably odd specimen boasting enormous trunk and very small branches.

The Boojum
The boojum is another non-cactus vegetable. It looks like a huge carrot standing upside down. It has leaves but no branches and grows at the rate of a little more than one inch per year. Specimens having a height of 40 feet may be around 400 years old.

Boojum

Rock Painting in Cataviña

Cave Paintings
The cave paintings and pictographs were probably made by the cochimi people living here several thousand years ago.

There are several theories trying to explain the whys of these primitive art depictions. Some go from witchery to religious purposes. Others say the pictographs were recounts of important events.

Radio carbon dates the petroglyphs at nearly 6000 years ago.

The Rock Garden in Cataviña
The rock garden and the boulder field are probably some of the most spectacular and strange landscapes in the world and consequently the most famous Catavina tourist attractions.

You will find cyclopean boulders shaped by the wind along millions of years, and will be surprised by unique flora beautifully coexisting among hard granite rocks and natural fresh water pools.

Colonial Missions in Cataviña
If Colonial architecture attracts you, then try to visit San Fernando Velicata and Santa Maria missions. Both dating back to the 18th Century. These relics are easily accessible from the town.

Driving Distances
Catavina is located 110 miles south of San Quintín.
235 miles south of Ensenada.
And 290 miles south of the USA-Mexico border.